Alameda County is launching a new pilot program that aims to cut the red tape that comes with building affordable housing.

The SHIFT initiative designed by the county’s housing and community development department aims to provide pre-permitted designs to streamline the process of building affordable homes.

Programs and policies manager Dylan Sweeney is now accepting proposals for developers to design the plans.

"Right now it takes between four and six years for us to build affordable housing in the county," he said. "If we can shorten that to two years or three years, we can save a tremendous amount of development cost just from that time savings, and that savings goes straight into the pocket of renters."

The goal is to build homes accessible to low-income residents making 60 to 80% o

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